Focus on... "When shall we three meet again?” I lost the plot! With a wry smile, I was sent on my way with, "At least you tried." Jon Robertshaw (H 55) Martin Lloyd had just one joke which he offered as advice to all School leavers at the end of term "Try not to commit adultery in O.U. pyjamas". Malcolm Pershke (WD 56) As secretary of the Motor Club, an incident occurred on a speech day when we were displaying our cars and I was "testing" an old Austin around the School House gravel quad in an opposite lock slide amidst flying gravel, when Martin Lloyd drives under the School Tower in his sedate saloon motor car, a dark green Morris. I narrowly missed him as the brakes weren't much good, (we were more interested in going than stopping!). He was most gracious in his response. I remember he did comment to me that he considered motor racing a "cheap thrill", but this in no way deterred me from pursuing this dream. Again I remember driving the club Go Kart around the old swimming pool on the gravel driveway and narrowly missing Mrs Martin Lloyd who was pushing a pram by water tower corner! This incident was ignored. Alistair Welch (LH 56) I am the son of Christopher Reeves (L 1917), who, at an Uppingham Masonic Lodge meeting, asked Martin Lloyd what he would most like to achieve before he retired. Martin replied to the effect that he would like the whole School to be able to fit into the chapel and not have secondary services in the parish church. My father took up the challenge and in co-operation with other OUs they raised enough funds to enable the Chapel extension to be built. Edward Reeves (L 56) I don’t think that we exchanged one word during my five years at Uppingham. It never occurred to me at the time that he was a shy man. My most vivid memory of him is the lecture he gave us on suppressing coughs during concerts. “The loud cough that betokens the empty mind” seemed to be the gist of it. I’ve carried it usefully over decades through scores of concerts! Roger Neill (B 57) He was quite a disciplinarian and got very upset with uncontrolled coughing, particularly in Chapel, where it had become quite an
epidemic, especially when the service had become unusually boring. On one occasion we could all see that he was going blue in the face during the sermon trying to stifle a cough. Ultimately he had to give in and his coughing fit gave us all great amusement. Another issue which caused him concern was snapping hymn books closed with a loud bang which had also become a popular source of amusement for the boys to annoy him and especially the music master. The boys were very adept at concealing this activity and it was always entertaining to see Martin Lloyd's eyes darting from side to side to spot the culprits. David Dickson (Fgh 57) ML was endearingly capable of self parody. I remember in 1963 a satirical revue (Uppingham’s answer to Beyond The Fringe) that was staged in the Hall. Piers Gough (WB 59), then editor of U, which may or may not have been Uppingham’s answer to Private Eye, stood, gowned, under the canopy of the carved wooden lectern and started to move a stack of books one at a time to create a fresh stack at the other end of the desk. This familiar twitch of the Headman brought forth hoots of derision from the audience. The following morning after prayers in the Hall, ML stood to make his announcements, grasped his pile of books with both hands, grinned broadly and gained the same peals of laughter that had greeted Piers the night before. I don’t think he ever fidgeted with his books again. Rob Tresidder (M 59) An anecdote which might amuse you but which needs corroborating was the incident when some boys pushed the old horse-drawn cricket-pitch roller down the hill towards the South Back Way. It gathered so much momentum that it went half-way up the hill on the other side completely demolishing PF Saunders’ greenhouse. One of the culprits was one of a pair of identical twins who predictably claimed that the guilty party was his twin brother. Martin Lloyd beat him just the same! Neil Kennedy (Hf 59) My clearest memory of ML is meeting him with my father for an interview to decide if a lowly colonial was worthy of admission despite having been educated to date in Canada, then a year at the less than world-renowned Davies Tutoring School in Holland Park. Father set about describing my impressive results in Canadian IQ testing (routine in Canada in those days). ML had clearly never heard of such
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a concept, so my father began describing it as the latest thing developed in the US education system. With an expression suggesting he had just complete disdain, Mr Lloyd advised that the Americans were no doubt worthy people, but no one could suggest that they were remotely as advanced as the English in education or much of anything else. Michael Royce (SH 60) Martin and his wife Kay were very much a couple. Kay Lloyd was glamorous and oozed Scottish charm and was in charge of the House budget. Complaints as to the quality of the food – usually at its worst mid-week – were greeted with put downs such as ‘O yer poor wee things!’ Sometimes efforts at revenge were tried. If a particularly tough stew was served for lunch, the prefect responsible for serving on the Headmaster’s table would try and find the toughest, most grizzly piece for Martin Lloyd. All to no avail as he would happily chomp his way through whatever was presented to him. Their sense of humour again manifested itself when they agreed to (and took part in) the scene in the School House film when Kay Lloyd puts scraps in the dustbin, followed immediately by Mr Stokes, the cook, looking in the bin and pleased with what he finds taking the bin back into the kitchen . . . Tom Ryland (SH 60) I was Head of School when the changeover from Martin Lloyd to John Royds occurred at Easter 1965. It fell to me to arrange a collection from the boys and to spend it on a present for Martin and Kay Lloyd. We collected about £160, with which we bought for them a "radiogram". Today, that sounds quite a lot of money for a machine whose sound reproduction was of doubtful quality - but the Lloyds seemed to be very pleased with it! Richard Venables (H 60) My abiding memory of him is always when he walked down the aisle after the services in Chapel. He would be clothed in gown and mortarboard and his piercing eyes would rove from side to side as he walked. I always remember trying not to catch his steely glance because it made me feel as if he could see into my soul and knew exactly what sins I was concealing. I suppose I felt that he and the Lord God were closely aligned in that. Robert Leader (L 61)
We had a huge response to our appeal for recollections of Martin Lloyd – enough to fill eight pages of this magazine. Our apologies that we did not have space to include every memory, and that we had to edit some of those we have used, but all the contributions are featured on the OU website. If you would like a hard-copy, please contact the OU office and we will send you a transcript.
